How to Design a Colorful Flower Bed

A flower bed filled with masses of color to grab your attention, blooming from spring through fall — what could be better in any garden? If what you want is a flower bed filled with masses of the same plant, suc

7 Fabulous Shade-Loving Ferns for Containers

When designing a container garden for shade, it’s natural for plants like begonias, fuchsias and impatiens to top the list. Don’t get me wrong, these plants are fantastic and are a great way to add color to a d

9 Deer-Resistant Flowering Shrubs to Plant This Fall

Almost every gardener loves the scent of roses, but for deer a rosebush smells like dinner. You could go out and plant some of the coarse evergreen shrubbery that deer are known to avoid, but you may find yourse

Great Design Plant: Ebenopsis Ebano

The lush, dark green foliage of Texas ebony (Ebenopsis ebano) is often the first characteristic people find attractive. While many trees native to the Southwest have varying shades of lighter greens with blue a

5 Ways to Keep Your Native Plant Garden Looking Good All Year

People often have the illusion that gardens are static places, manicured and perfect, stable and constant. Some botanical and public gardens contribute to this idea, but they are highly stylized examples, with l

Look for Long-Horned Bees on Summers Flowers

Long-horned bees are a genus of bees (Melissodes) that emerge from their nests in the summer months, typically starting in July and coinciding with the onset of flowering in their preferred forage plants: those

Great Design Plant: Vernonia Noveboracensis

I was introduced to New York ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis) in a demonstration meadow at the New England Wild Flower Society’s headquarters in Framingham, Massachusetts. At about 7 feet tall, it held its pu

Great Design Plant: Euphorbia Antisyphilitica

We don’t often celebrate a plant for its stems, but stems are what candelilla (Euphorbia antisyphilitica) is known for. Its vertical stems, which resemble little candles, have made it an increasingly popular acc

6 Deer-Resistant Flowering Vines to Plant This Fall

The New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers University has compiled a database with hundreds of plant species rated by their deer resistance, from “rarely damaged” to “frequently damaged.” In the v

How and Why You Should Clean Your Garden Tools

As summer gardens fade and a new season begins, it’s time to think about caring for the hardworking tools that have served us so well. Although cleaning garden tools regularly (preferably after every use) is ide

We Bust 4 More Native Plant Myths

Gardening is not simple or easy, no matter how hard commercials and television shows try to persuade us. Gardening is not a weekend job but a lifetime experience, like raising kids, falling in love or learning a

Great Design Plant: California Grindelia Species for Beneficial Insects

These three California gum plants — Great Valley gum plant (Grindelia camporum), hairy gum plant (G. hirsutula) and Oregon gum plant (G. stricta var. platyphylla) — have many things in common. All are easy, toug

Great Design Plant: Please Bumblebees by Planting Baptisia Lactea

Wild white indigo (Baptisia lactea) is a tall, spring-flowering native of prairies and open, sunny sites. This large, adaptable perennial tolerates a wide range of soil types. Ideal sites include a perennial gar

10 Plants for Colorful Fall Blooms in the Drought-Tolerant Garden

The arid garden might be short on colorful fall foliage, but that doesn’t mean you need to resign yourself to a colorless fall landscape. There are many beautiful plants that celebrate the coming of autumn by b

8 Deer-Resistant Elegant Evergreen Shrubs to Plant This Fall

In areas with heavy deer pressure, most gardeners know that tough and prickly needle-bearing shrubs are one choice they can make at the nursery that won’t end up as deer food. Coniferous shrubs like juniper are

3 Ideas From the Evolving Garden

We always seem to strive for reliable consistency in our gardens and in our lives; it’s reassuring to live by a clock or know when and where a flower will bloom. But life doesn’t work that way, and gardens certa

How to Start a Cool-Season Vegetable Garden

In late summer, you may think your vegetable garden is on its way out. But if you live in a mild-winter climate, the cool-season garden might actually span the second half of the gardening year, producing fresh

Great Design Plant: Chamaecrista Fasciculata Brightens City Boulevards

Partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata) is a U.S. native annual legume commonly occurring in dry sites in prairies, rangelands and old fields. With its short stature, it can be planted along the edge of a sidew

Great Design Plant: Salvia Leucantha

Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha) flowers in spring through fall, much to the delight of butterflies and hummingbirds, who enjoy the nectar the flowers provide. This drought-tolerant perennial’s purple spikes

Backyard Birds: How to Care for American Goldfinches

Spotting an acrobatic flash of yellow flitting around the garden, feeding on flowering seed heads or foraging at bird feeders is a common occurrence in many yards throughout the United States in summer. Very lik